Swans perform above expectations, but can they win it all?

Swans perform above expectations, but can they win it all?

So it turns out I was wrong back in March. In fact, I was nowhere near forecasting the last two teams standing when making my AFL pre-season predictions.

Before a ball was marked in the 2016 AFL season, I put my neck on the line, claiming West Coast would do enough to top the table, while the Swans would tumble out of the top eight. Shows how much I know.

Saturday’s AFL Grand Final will be contested by the very same Sydney team I had written off, and they’ll meet the Western Bulldogs, who are set to end a 55-year barren spell without an appearance in the league’s showpiece match.

Despite expecting the Bulldogs to make the post-season, I hadn’t expected them to get past the first hurdle. But, even though the two teams left are not the expected pair, I wasn’t completely wrong.

Six of the top eight in the prediction ladder did make their way to the post-season and poor campaigns from Fremantle (predicted third) and Richmond (predicted fourth) saw them replaced by the rampant Swans and Adelaide Crows.

This weekend’s spectacle is sure to be a great encounter with the Bulldogs having clawed back from a large deficit in the Preliminary Final against GWS Giants, while the Swans brushed aside a very good Geelong side last time out.

No matter whether the trophy stays in Victoria or moves up the coast to New South Wales, I’ll be there watching early on Saturday morning (5am) getting some research in for my next round of optimistic predictions.